EXPERIENTIAL CONDITIONS FOR EDUCATIONAL EQUITY IN ACTION: CULTURALLY RESPONSIVE LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT IN AN INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL

Abstract

International school leaders face distinct cultural challenges in schools where expatriate leaders serve local students. As a practitioner-researcher in a participatory action and activist research (PAR) study at an international school in Taiwan, I determined the elements for building a school leadership team committed to educational equity through culturally responsive theory and practice and sensitive to the cultural dynamics of the community they serve. In the PAR project and study, I collaborated with a Co-Practitioner Researcher (CPR) team of expatriate and local school leaders to fortify our leadership practices through community learning exchange axioms, protocols, and strategies. The group met monthly over the 2021-2022 school year to address educational equity, using culturally responsive theory, frameworks, and practices. I documented individual and collective leadership growth. The findings indicate that the process of equity-centered team building facilitated the professional and personal relationships with team members and accelerated their equity-centered leadership actions at the school. The experiential learning conditions of the CPR team, including leadership identity development and reflective practices, led participants to develop a stronger sense of equity leadership and group accountability to move from beliefs to actions. The Leadership Development for Educational Equity framework supports these methods for building educational leader capacity to act on their equity beliefs and has the potential for application to other educational settings.